In our appearance conscious society, people often judge others based upon physical appearance, including weight, hair style or existence, and skin appearance, among other things. This is especially true of women. To address concerns that they may be discriminated against based upon their appearance, people increasingly concentrate on improving or treating their outward appearance, particularly to conform to popular ideals of beauty. People make efforts an a variety of fronts to maintain a youthful appearance. For example, people diet, exercise, and take vitamins, among other things.
One of the most visible parts of a person's appearance is his or her face. Accordingly, people increasingly address perceived imperfections on the face. For instance, people have face lifts, or nose jobs or treat imperfections in the skin as a consequence of the appearance consciousness of our society.
As we age, wrinkles often appear in our skin. Wrinkles affect people most significantly when the wrinkles appear on the face since the face is often the part of the body that is usually exposed. Although this problem affects all people, wrinkles are especially worrisome for women, particularly as they approach and are in middle and/or old age, given the much greater emphasis on the maintenance of a youthful appearance of women in our society. Often, people treat wrinkles with lotions, creams, facial wraps, facial scrubs, facial massages, and other treatments, including prescription pharmaceuticals. Frequently, people turn to more drastic treatments that require administration by a physician. More drastic treatments include having materials, such as collagen, injected under the skin of the face or having plastic surgery performed.
Downsides of existing treatments for facial skin wrinkles, particularly the more drastic and risky procedures described above, include excessive time and cost and possible unknown and negative side effects. For instance, plastic surgery is quite costly and surgery always has associated risks. Also, it is known that the effects of collagen injected into, a person's lips, is temporary and, therefore, requires repetitive trips to a physician for retreatment. Also, compounds, such as RETIN-A have some harmful side effects.